Archive for the 'Garret Anderson' Tag Under 'Angels' Category

The San Francisco Giants on Monday return to Angel Stadium for the first time since Oct. 27, 2002, which was the Angels' 4-1 victory in Game 7 of the World Series.

Manager Mike Scioscia and first base coach Alfredo Griffin are the only Angels holdovers from that championship season.

“It was a great series but there's a lot of mileage from 2002 to now,” Scioscia said before Monday night's interleague series opener. “I don't know if there are many comparisons you can draw. Different uniforms, different team, different everything.”

Sitting nearby in the Angels dugout, former Angels All-Star slugger Garret Anderson, who is working as a Fox Sports broadcaster, chimed in: “I don't think there is one (similarity between the teams then and now.)”

Angels right fielder Torii Hunter has been spending most of his offseason watching his sons play football at home in Prosper, Texas. But his past two weeks have taken him from coast to coast.

Hunter was in New York to accept the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association's Heart and Hustle Award on Nov. 3. Each MLB team nominates “the player who best demonstrates a passion for the game and who best embodies the values, spirits and traditions of baseball.” The MLBPAA member vote on the winner.

Local business and community leaders and fans went to the 13th Tim Salmon Golf Classic on Monday at Coto de Caza Golf Club to meet and support former Angels slugger Tim Salmonand his foundation, which raised funds for Concept 7 and Laurel House, two non-profits that assist abused and at-risk children.

But many among the more than 200 who turned out at this $400-a-golfer, $3,20- a-foursome event got a double sighting of Angels legends as newly retired Garret Anderson took to the links.

The Angels made another switch this homestand in their ceremonial first-pitch rotation, substituting former Angels All-Star catcher, outfielder and designated hitter Brian Downing in for former Gold Glove outfielder Gary Pettis to have honors before Wednesday's second game of the three-game series against the Texas Rangers.

Downing, a member of the Angels Hall of Fame, played 13 of his 20 major league seasons with the Angels (1978-1990) before retiring in 1992 as a Ranger. He left the Angels as the club's all-time leader in games (1,661), runs (889), hits (1,588), total bases (2,580), doubles (282), home runs (222) and RBI (846). (Most of these club records have since been eclipsed by Garret Anderson.)

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I'm not a big fan of the contest in general, but I'll never forget Garret Anderson, below right, winning the 2003 Home Run Derby in Chicago, edging Albert Pujols by one in the finals.

The Angels left fielder was only third in total home runs in that contest, and the rules were changed afterward.

Now, the format has been changed again for the 2011 version Monday in Arizona, with captains from each league picking their leagues' lineups.

Someone probably should've hinted to Prince Fielder that Arizona's Justin Upton should be in the Derby, and I think the Angels' Mark Trumbo should've been a David Ortiz choice, but what's done is done.

Myself, I prefer to watch hitters belt home runs against real pitchers in actual competition, but the Home Run Derby is vastly popular with others, and I'm not going to stand in the way.

Of course, the buzz surrounding Friday's Angels game against the Seattle Mariners will be about the anticipated big-league debut of 19-year old outfielder and top prospect Mike Trout. His getting called up after starting center fielder Peter Bourjos injured his hamstring during Thursday night baserunning is a flash of the Angels future.

Despite the Trout fever (Check out what fans are saying), the Angels' 50th anniversary party continues with Flashback Fridays and after a four Fridays of 1960s uniforms, we will see the team throw way back to .... the 1990's.

The club will don the California Angels uniforms from the 1993-1996 campaigns. The uniforms will feature the stylized "CA" lettering with navy piping along the neck and sleeves that was worn by Angel stars such as Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson, Jim Edmonds (left) and J.T. Snow. The 1993-1996 California Angels' uniform will also be worn on the following Friday home games: August 5 versus Seattle Mariners and August 19 versus Baltimore Orioles.

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I caught up with Garret Anderson, the former All-Star left fielder who played for the the California, Anaheim and Los Angeles Angels and for Autry, Disney and Arte, for a Thursday column in the Register.

Anderson, who turned 39 on June 30, returned last week to toss out a ceremonial first pitch, having just retired in March. He wasn't ready to leave baseball but he has found new ways to use his energies away from the game. He even has a plan to start college in the fall, so he is searching through catalogs at local junior colleges to select one class to attend and one to take online. (He lives in Irvine.)

The Angels drafted him out of high school in 1990. He leads nearly every offensive category in the Angels' all-time record book. Now he's hitting the books.

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Did you notice this message that flashed up on the giant video screen over right field after the second inning and again before the bottom of the third inning on Monday night when the Angels defeated Oakland?

This was a tribute to Heather (Hoefnagels) Beyer, 27, a 2007 Strike Force member who has terminal breast cancer. Beyer, despite her frail condition, made good on her promise to attend Monday's game and join the current and former Strike Force alumni who spent the two hours before the game painting fans' faces and applying temporary tattoos for American Cancer Society Relay for Life donations in Beyer's honor.

"I have a message that I hope to share," said Beyer, of Aliso Viejo, still finding the energy to push for a cause. "I hope that someone can learn from what has happened to me and know that you don't have to be over 40 or have cancer in your family to be at risk of breast cancer."

The Baseball Reliquary, a non-for-profit educational organization dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history, is now presenting its “Halos & Horrors: 50 years of Angels Baseball” exhibition at the Pomona Public Library.

On display will be photographs, artwork, memorabilia and documents chronicling the heritage, events and personalities of the franchise that began in 1961 as the Los Angeles Angels. Among those prominently spotlighted in the exhibition will be the Angels founder and first owner Gene Autry, cocky southpaw Bo Belinsky, pitching ace Dean Chance, popular 5-foot-5 center fielder Albie Pearson and Angels greats Ryne Duren, Leon “Daddy Wags” Wagner, Nolan Ryan, Jim Abbott and Garret Anderson.

Highlights include a photographic series of the Angels' 1964 spring training in Palm Springs; photos of the construction of Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium), which became home to the Angels in 1966; and artist Ben Sakoguchi's “Orange Crate Label Series: The Unauthorized History of Baseball” paintings featuring the team's “horrors,” curses and personal tragedies of Angels players Wagner, Belinsky, Lyman Bostock and Donnie Moore.

Peter Bourjos became the 27th Angel to start the opener in center field in the Angels' 50-year history when he opened there in Kauffman Stadium on Thursday.

Torii Hunter, who was in right field, had started in center on Opening Day the past three seasons – tied for second with Jose Cardenal (1965-67), Fred Lynn (1981-83), and Darin Erstad (2001-03) for second in consecutive center-field starts on Opening Day in Angels history.

Among the more unusual: Garret Anderson actually opened three seasons in CF (1999, 2000 and '04). And who could forget Bruce Bochte, normally a first baseman, started in center in 1977 (I did, and I covered that club)?